International Round-Up; Arsenal Place 5th in Deloitte Money League

By: Martin | February 9th, 2011

A few things today:

A bunch of Arsenal players played in internationals yesterday. The good news was that no one got hurt so far as we know now (we won’t know for sure until they all get back to London and check in with team physios).

Nicklas Bendtner started and played the entire match against England. Jack Wilshere started and was brought off at half-time. He took some kind of slight knee knock in the first half, which had some people worried, but apparently Capello and Wenger agreed that Wilshere should only play one half, which Capello honored — a national team coach that’s willing to work with clubs and not be a total dick about things, imagine that? Wilshere played well by most accounts. Theo also started and played 68 minutes, and assisted on Darren Bent’s goal.

Sagna started and played the entire match for France’s 1-0 victory over Brazil. Diaby came on as a substitute in the 60th minute and finished up the match. Clichy and Koscielny stayed on the bench. Wojo played in the Poland match, which is encouraging as it means he’s fully fit and the injury scare in training on Tuesday was nothing. Tomas Rosicky played for Czech Republic, and, get this, I shit you not — he actually scored a goal. A pretty good one, too:

Don’t know where that’s been for Arsenal for the past year, but hopefully that goal is what he needs to get some confidence back and start putting some decent shots on target for us. Arshavin played for Russia, who somehow lost 1-0 to Iran. Chamakh played for Morocco against Niger, and Eboue played for Ivory Coast against Mali, and both apparently came through okay. So that’s that. Players will likely return today and have some physical exams before some light pre-match training tomorrow.

Elsewhere, Deloitte published its annual “money league” standings yesterday. We remained in 5th place, behind Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, and Bayern Munich. Chelsea remained behind us in 6th place. The Deloitte standings measure only revenue, not wealth (i.e., Chelsea & Manchester City may HAVE more money than us because of their sugar-daddy owners, but they MAKE less than us). And they look at the 2009-2010 season.

At any rate, Arsenal FC brought in €274 million last season, which was slightly up than the €263 million the club brought in in 2008-2009. Overall, the top English clubs didn’t fluctuate too much — United stayed in 3rd, making €349 million (up from €327 million the season before). 6th place Chelsea made €256 million, up from €242 million in 2008-2009; Liverpool dropped from 7th to 8th, making €225 million as opposed to €237 million the year before — and I think they’ll see a real fall next season with the loss of Champions League revenue; the big movers were Manchester City, who rocketed up from 20th to 11th, increasing revenues from €101 million to €152 million; Spurs moved up from 15th to 12th, increasing revenues from €133 million to €146 million; and Aston Villa poked their head in at the bottom of the list, coming in at 20th at €109 million.

If there’s any cause for concern, it’s that all of the other top 5 teams saw much more dramatic increases to their revenue than we did. Real Madrid increased their revenue €37 million, Barcelona increased their revenue €31 million (and that will skyrocket next year with their new shirt sponsorship deal); Manchester United increased revenue €22 million; and Bayern increased their revenue €33 million. Our €11 million increase seems puny by comparison. Some of those teams had extenuating factors, though — Madrid probably made a fortune from shirt sales alone from the purchases of Ronaldo and Kaka; Bayern made a deep run to the Champions League final. But it’s a bit troubling. Part of the problem is our shirt sponsorship deal with Emirates. It was packaged with the stadium naming/financing deal, but we basically got ourselves tied into a long-term deal (I think it runs til 2015 or something) which is not very financially beneficial for us. Liverpool makes twice as much as they do off their new shirt deal, and we are much more exposed than they are. Being able to negotiate a new deal on that alone would be worth an extra €10-15 million a year. ~~Our property sales from the redevelopment of the Highbury property also started to taper off.~~ (Not included in the calculations, apparently. Apologies for the error.)

I think there is optimism. While we can’t renegotiate our shirt sponsorship just yet, I do think the club is trying to be more aggressive about global marketing and partnerships, which is an area where we have lagged behind other clubs for a long time now. A run to the end of the Carling Cup and hopefully a deep run in the FA Cup will also make a difference, both for picking up some extra tv revenue and for adding a few home fixtures to the calendar — Arsenal makes roughly €2-3 million in matchday revenue per home fixture, so getting 3-4 extra home matches a year can make a huge difference. Obviously, as is always the case, the single most important thing we can do to safeguard our financial position is continuing to qualify for the Champions League group stages, which bring in €20-30 million per season in revenue. It’s massive. I don’t think we’ll take a huge leap forward next year, but I do think our revenues will continue to grow steadily but surely, and I think we’ll be able to stay in the top 5 for next year at least.

The other thing that I always note about this is what it means for the leagues themselves. Last year, Madrid and Barcelona were 1-2 on the list, but not a single other Spanish team was in the top 20. This year, Athletico Madrid, buoyed mainly by their Europe League-winning campaign last season, popped up into 17th with €125 million in revenue. But they didn’t qualify for Europe this year, so I suspect they will drop back out of the top 20 next season. It really demonstrates the inequality of La Liga’s financial system.

The league breakdown is as follows:

England: 7
Germany: 4
Italy: 4
Spain: 3
France: 2

And that’s it. No one from Netherlands, Portugal, Ukraine, Russia, Greece, Turkey, or anywhere else makes the list. I think it reflects well both on how much money in absolute terms is in the Premiership, as well as how it is divided, that England managed to place 7 teams in the top 20. Consider that a team like Aston Villa makes it over teams which regularly qualify for the Champions League and you get a sense of what a juggernaut England really is. I think it will only continue to grow.

So it’s pretty good news for Arsenal. Really solidifies that we are one of the world’s truly elite clubs in terms of support and financial power. Which is a good place to be. It’s pretty astounding to think that there are only 4 clubs on the planet that make more money than our beloved Arsenal.

Finally, reports are that the Olympic Stadium bid will go to West Ham United, not Spurs. As nice as it would have been in some ways to get Spurs out of North London so we could have it all to ourselves, the fact is that the game has gone so global that I’m not sure how important local territory is to success any more. Honestly, look at Chelsea — to this day, I think they are actually 4th in popularity among Londoners, behind Arsenal, Spurs, and West Ham, but they’ve spent the money to compete on a global stage. So having to share North London is worth it for me if it keeps Spurs from getting a sweetheart stadium deal. Nothing is official yet, though, so let’s not start counting those chickens quite just yet.

That’s it. Back with a Wolves preview tomorrow.

****************

Don’t forget to follow the Arsenal Offside on Twitter for the latest news, links, and updates

Some Related Stories:

Category: Arsenal News, Backroom, Internationals

« Good Injury News on Djourou; Bendtner Calls Future in Doubt; Barcelona Give Up Pursuit of Cesc, Skeptical Question Mark? | Home | Arsenal – Wolves Preview »

Foreverzidane

Hey Gooners who you wanna see win tomorrow in the Manchester Derby?
I'm hoping for a hard battle ending in a draw, or a Citeh win, which is far more favorable.
Julian

How in the world did Russia lose to Iran?

Is everything ok with Sairax? She hasn't posted in a bit. Not to say your posts aren't top class or anything, Martin, I really enjoy your posts and I read just about all of them- just noting that I haven't see your partner in crime around in a bit.
Kxevin

Actually, I would quibble with this statement: "It really demonstrates the inequality of La Liga’s financial system."

If you look at the numbers, matchday receipts and sponsorships are very large, as are TV revenues. If you remove TV revenues (or significantly alter them as regards a more equitable distribution of the contracts), Barca are still 9th or 10th on the rich list.

What the absence of Liga teams in the list does demonstrate is that like any league, the Premiership included, it is big teams, and a bunch of regional sides. Nobody except locals care about Sporting Gijon or Wolverhampton.

The Premiership has a number of big-city clubs, which accounts for their numbers on the list. Spain has Barcelona, and Madrid. None of the other clubs are big-city clubs. So it isn't financial inequity as much as real earning power. With a stadium that seats 24,000 or so, you just can't make the gate receipts. With players that nobody except the locals care about, where's the marketing dollars.

Yes, there is marketplace inequity, but those forces are no less acute in any other league.
Andylowe14

athletico madrid, valencia, athletico bilbao, villarreal, there are big enough sides in spain its comparable to the premiership but there are less top top teams. I think the point about the inequality is that it is a self perpetuating thing, the big clubs are already big powerhouses and the way the money is distributed in la liga makes the divide between the top 2 and the rest more and more unreachable. i dont know where u calculated that barca would be 9th on the list in la liga equaly distributed tv money, i imagine they would still have a high income from gate reciepts and merchandising but either way, the point is that the other spanish sides are way way down the list. Who is there to seriously challenge he top two? must be a boring league to follow
Homey_Mills

And in the humorous news of the day, I just read that Diaby wouldn't mind going to Barca or Real Madrid at some point. Hahaha. How about they take him off our hands right now?
Gigi_man

completely off subject:
it was my BDay this week and I got the coolest gift from 2 of my assistants (I dont know how they got it but they did) a super cool original Cesc #4 Arsenal shirt!!!!!!
Should I wear it in the next game of should I watch the game as I watched the 1st half vs Newcastle??? hahahah
Homey_Mills

I hope it's red and white and not that ugly yellow thing we're using this year.
Gigi_man

yeppp red and white dude!
FredJacob

well gigi lets hope Arsenal give you a belated birthday present on the 27th
Gigi_man

oh yes lets hope, from your mouth to Gods ears!
FredJacob

Well mine is the 26th so that all i want for my Birthday, that Goddamn trophy
Wolffy

Looking at the league breakdown teams in the top 20 based on revenues, it pretty much follows the whole financial situation in Europe right now. Spain, France, and Italy are not in the best sovereign debt positions, and in turn do not have the most teams in the top 20. But England and Germany two economic powerhouses have the respective 1 and 2 spots for teams in the top 20. Not saying this has anything to do with how many teams each country puts in the top 20 but I thought it was an interesting observation since I'm a finance and accounting major at the University of Delaware.
Martin

Yeah, although Germany and Italy are actually tied. Also, not related to anything, but . . . I hate Delaware: all the tolls I paid just to be able to cross that damn bridge are probably paying your tuition.

Just kidding . . . sort of.
Wolffy

I also hate the state of Delaware and I am not a Delaware native, I'm from New Jersey. But the school is great and probably the only good thing in the state. Plus the school is not 100% public it has a private charter and receives a good portion of its' funding privately.
Andylowe14

it would be more relevent to somehow include debts into the calculation, because arsenal are very secure in our stadium fanancing debts which are fixed low interest and steady repayments. Compared to man utd for example who have hundreds of millions of debts. and barca who had to take an emergency loan to pay their players. Chelsea lose about 100m per season. so the revenue is fairly irrelevent without knowing how much you have to pay out. If you have interest payments of 60m per year (man u) then surely thats relevent. Also you can see how the two are connected.. if you take out a debt to buy players (say kaka and ronaldo) and then you benefit massively from increased shirt sales and merchandising, image rights etc, then that increase is relfected in increased revenue but clearly this doesnt tell the whole story. as you have increased debt.. It is also relevent to the financial fair play rules.. if you can generate massive revenue and also make a profit (like arsenal) you're loving it. Arsenal so financially strong at the moment
Patoux21

It would be better if we could spend the money in order to win trophies because at the end of the day what matters is silverware
Andylowe14

i'm fed up of hearin ghtese one dimentional comments about spending money and silverwear.. we do spend money we have the 3rd highest wage bill in the league which is a FAR bigger contributor to a clubs expenditure than the one off purchase price of a player. If you sign someone for years and years you pay their transfer fee once and their wages are the biggest thing by far. And we pay high wages to keep the best players so dont tell me arsenal dont spend money.

not to mention the fact that out squad is awesome at the moment, who would you buy realistically to improve it?
Kxevin

Defenders. Your attack is brilliant, but your defense breaks down from the midfield in, so that by the time people get at the back line, it's a fire drill. One or two experienced, solid international defenders would vault you from contenders to verging on sure things in all competitions. I wouldn't change a thing about your attack, but I probably would havet tried to buy Carvalho when he came on the market, or made us a serious offer for Gaby Milito, as another example.
Andylowe14

yes but to be fair with vermaelen and djourou i think that pairing is pretty good. the newcastle result is the only example this year when we have looked weak, before that we had clean sheets and very tight at the back. The 4 goals we let in we had no alex song (who is a huge player defensively) and koscielny and squilacci, our 3rd and 4th choice defenders in truth. I dont think anyone can complain about bacary sagna, and cliche/gibbs isnt too shabby. with vermaelen djourou sagna clilche/gibbs and song infront, i think thats pretty much alright.

but i see your point about midfield, our wide players especially contribute little to the defence, if u have them both playing flat out upfront then u are exposed out wide. Down the middle i think we're okay as wilshere seems to be loving the defensive roles at the moment (for england etc) and song, ramsey, denilson. i think the problem of when we look vulnerable isnt the players as such, its a psychological change that seems to affect the whole team, we lose our rhythym and cant get organised. Maybe its the lack of a huge personality aka patrick vieira or tony adams to get everyone in line. cesc is a great leader but he needs to work on being a motivator especially when things go tits up. its easy to be the captain when the team constantly has the ball and is winning and scoring. so i think the defensive problem is not solved by buying another player, the team would still have the same issues
Gigi_man

Agreed. Althoug, I wouldnt say improve it buy buying someone, I may say reinforce it by buying subs. Although a nice fox in the box sub wouldnt hurt.
Homey_Mills

Ah yes, the ever-so-frustrating reminders that we have plenty of money coming in, yet we refuse to spend it.
John Murphy

Football is a business. The owners have every right to not spend the money that they are making. It is not like Wegner is not spending any money, he is just not spending as much as other managers and clubs.

At the same time, we are consistently at the top of the table, and we consistently make it out of the group stages of the Champions League and often make deeps runs in the Champions League.

And Wegner is not exactly wrong in his assessment of how to run a team. 4 years ago Csec was not of a quality that he could have beaten out a big money signing that Wegner could have brought in. Wilshire is not of a quality that a big money signing could bring in. Should we go out and spend a large sum of money and put Wilshire on the bench? Should we have done the same 4 years ago with Csec?

Is it frustrating not winning tropheies? Yes. However, we are alive in four competitions this year. We have already made the finals of the Carling Cup. We are 4 points off the lead in the League, and we have a favorable schedule compared to our competition. And I may be alone in this, but I don't feel we are sure to lose to Barca. If we play like we did in the first half against Newcastle, and the way we played in the preceding 6 games, I believe we have a good chance to knock them out of the competition.
Andylowe14

yes i am with you that we can barcelona. im always an optomistic fan but i think we have a much better chance than last year. Anyone can beat anyone on their day, but we're ARSENAL theres no game against any opposing 11 players in the world that we shouldnt go into thinking we can win. so lets fecking take it to them.

I agree about the playing wilshere and fabregas argument as opposed to buying someone in. when we have ramsey back settled in with song and wilshere, fabregas as long as he stays with us etc, we will have a midfield that is not only top top quality and improving every season, but has the team unity and telepaphy that you get from playing with the same players for so long. this team has grown up together and that is something that you cant buy. not to mention the extra special (and rare these days) achievement of actually winning a trophy (as opposed to BUYING IT) cough cough chelsea AHEM man city... what..
Gigi_man

Hey nice goal from Rosicky. Kind of reminds me the movement on RvPs leg when he shoots after a pass like that, also really "RvP fox in the area", since he waited until the last pass. Hope he boosts up and scores many for us like that
BERTRAND

Property sales isn't included in the Deloitte Money League calculations, which only measures revenue from the footballing sector.
Martin

Ah, thanks for keeping me honest. Should be fixed now.